Things starting to heat up around the Frontier

Frontier Conference sports are right around the corner. The Montana State University-Northern volleyball and football teams will report to fall camp next week, and the season-opening games are not far off.

But Havre won’t be the only place heating up in recent weeks as it relates to Frontier Conference and NAIA sports.

And one former Blue Pony, and Frontier Conference great is now a little farther from home but will start his duties higher up on the coaching ladder.

Former Havre High and Carroll College great Jarrod Wirt is now the Defensive Coordinator at Bethaney College in Kansas. He previously served as defensive backs coach at Carroll for the past nine seasons, and his defensive backfield with the Saints was always one of the best.

The Saints won eight more Frontier Conference Championships and four National Championships during his coaching career at Carroll College. Wirt has coached five NAIA All-Americans, 10 Academic All-Americans and 18 Frontier Conference All-Conference players over the past seven years. He has also coached three William V. Campbell Trophy — Academic Heisman — honorees, two of which made semifinals.

Prior to coaching, Wirt played four years as a standout defensive back for the Saints from 2000 to 2004. He started 27 games during his final two years at Carroll College. As a player, the Saints won four Frontier Conference Championships and two NAIA National Championships.

In Havre, Wirt earned multiple Class A All-State honors in football and basketball and his Blue Pony teams were highly successful in both seasons. Wirt graduated from Carroll College in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education with a biology major and chemistry minor.

Back on the Frontier front, today is a big day for fall sports coaches. The annual Frontier Conference media day will be held this afternoon in Great Falls in conjunction with the Montana Coaches Association Clinic, which starts Wednesday. The media day will feature many Frontier football coaches, as well as commissioner Kent Paulson, while both the volleyball and football preseason polls will also be released.

Earlier this month, Paulson traveled to Caldwell, Idaho to officially welcome the College of Idaho to the Frontier Conference. C of I will begin playing as a football-only school next season. The school, which is resurrecting its football program, recently named Mike Moroski as its head coach.

When Montana Tech goes back to work on the football field, the Orediggers will have a brand new synthetic turf field to play on.

Tech installed its new field inside Alumni Coliseum earlier this summer, and the project is complete and ready for use.

The stadium didn't change, however, the field at the stadium is now named Bob Green Field, in honor of legendary Tech head coach Bob Green, who retired two years ago and who has been instrumental in helping upgrade the Orediggers' athletic facilities in recent years.